Spanish Spoken Here

Our Towns

Barkhamsted

April 15, 1998

Muy bueno to Barkhamsted's school board for refusing to drop a four-month-old Spanish program for grades K-6.

The members stood their ground last week at a public hearing when several parents and other residents sought to reduce the proposed 6 percent budget increase by claiming that a $13,000 foreign-language instruction program is costly, unnecessary and takes classroom time away from basic subjects.

School board Chairman Kevin Case told the critics that the course will not be dropped and called it ``one of the best decisions we've made.'' He's right on target.

One myopic viewpoint expressed at the school board meeting was that because the students live in Barkhamsted, learning Spanish is unnecessary. Perhaps such critics are convinced that their children will never leave town, never travel to Winsted, Torrington or Hartford. In the United States, Spanish is second only to English.

Research also shows that young children learn a second language more easily when they are also learning their primary language. They perform better because a connection exists between learning a language and other academic subjects.

And collegebound students do better on entrance exams when they've had more than four years of a foreign language than those who do not.

The State Department of Education encourages foreign-language instruction and notes that 21 school districts statewide offered such programs in grades K-4 in 1997, an increase of 250 percent since 1993.

Residents should be proud their school board has high standards. Barkhamsted's language program is a worthwhile investment in educating children for a global society.